novelraw Chapter 196: Unhinged
Chapter 196: Unhinged
The moment they stepped past the threshold of the cave, the temperature spiked.
No longer a warm summer breeze, it turned into the kind of heat that tried to cook them from the inside out.
One of the nervous first-years, wiping sweat from his forehead, looked around the red-lit walls.
"Professor... what is this dungeon’s name?"
John adjusted his glasses, the lenses reflecting the dull glow of the magma veins running through the rock.
"Burning Hollow."
A second later, everyone understood why.
The air shimmered with haze, and the ground hissed.
This wasn’t just physical heat but also Divinity being aggressive.
Ignotus could feel his Divinity reserves ticking down.
Ding!
—
[Warning: Environmental Heat]
[Divinity Drain: -2/sec]
—
It was a constant, parasitic drain.
And just as the students were processing that unpleasant fact—
RUMBLE.
The cavern shook, and a section of the wall to their left exploded outward with a torrent of liquid fire and superheated steam.
"Watch out!"
Panic erupted at once, the formation breaking.
Students scrambled back, tripping over each other, their eyes wide with terror.
For a moment, they forgot that they were Runebearers; they forgot their training.
They were just kids realizing that, unlike the simulations at the Academy, there was no safety net here. They were too used to the "Butterfly"—the safety protocols that kept them alive during all that they did.
Here? If you burned, you died.
Ignotus didn’t flinch, nor did his cohort.
While the others were hyperventilating, House Calamity stood still, weapons ready but relaxed. Wall collapse? Please. They were here to hunt a Greater Demon. A little hot rock falling over wasn’t going to ruin their day.
Ignotus was rather focused on something else.
’Fate...’
He narrowed his eyes at the darkness ahead.
’You cheating bastard.’
Fate was a tricky opponent, and it was close to impossible to beat, so they certainly had their work cut out for them.
In his past life, the awakening of the Greater Demon in this dungeon had happened without anyone being able to stop it. It was a tragedy guaranteed to happen to push Death forward.
Beating such a Fated event was nearly impossible.
The world wanted this thing to wake up.
"Let’s go."
But Ignotus wasn’t about to stutter.
While John was busy wrangling the panicked sheep, he signaled his wolves. They slipped into a side tunnel, vanishing into the shadows before anyone noticed they were gone.
’Left.’
Eris was perched on Ignotus’s shoulder. Her black fur fluffed up against the heat.
’Then right... It stinks here, Ignotus. Like really bad.’
’That’s the Corruption we want.’
Ignotus led the way, moving fast, and the cohort followed silently.
They trusted him completely, even if they thought he was batshit crazy.
They moved deeper, the heat intensifying until it felt like walking through Hell.
"Stop."
Suddenly, Ignotus held up a hand.
Ahead of them, in a wide cavern illuminated by glowing crystals, stood a group of Runebearers. They weren’t wearing Academy uniforms; their armor bore the crest of the local Lower House, perhaps the one that owned this dungeon.
They were blocking the path to the lower areas.
"Of course..."
Ignotus sighed loudly.
"Nothing is ever smooth."
He turned to his group.
"Get your masks on."
Without a word, his people pulled out their Divine Masks from their dimensional storages. They saw it as standard protocol when doing something illegal—or in this case, "unsanctioned heroism."
Ignotus pulled out his own, [The Stranger’s Mask].
He slapped it onto his face, and it stuck, a now more terrifying thing.
Once it was a ’terrifying’ thing simply because it was nothing, but now, not anymore.
Much like his right glove that had changed after his Synaxis, this did too, gaining two upside-down crosses beneath the smiling eye slits and a spider’s fang in place of a mouth.
"Wait here."
Ignotus stepped out of the shadows and walked casually toward the group of strangers.
He didn’t plan to save them, not really. He just couldn’t afford to let them die inside. If the Demons killed them, the bloodshed and fear would feed the awakening ritual.
In simpler words, their deaths would be a gain for the enemy, not for him.
And Ignotus hated sharing Soul Fragments.
"Everyone, my bad for keeping you waiting."
Ignotus called out, his voice distorted by the mask.
The group of Runebearers jumped, spinning around, only to see him walk right up to their leader—a burly man with a long sword—and physically bump him out of the way.
"Hey!"
Ignotus ignored the shouting leader and turned to face the group.
He mimicked a bow, one hand on his chest.
"I’ll just say a few words, yeah?"
The group stared at the creepy masked weirdo who had just appeared out of nowhere.
"From now on, all of you will heed my commands."
The leader sputtered.
"Who do you think you—"
"And my first command is..."
Ignotus continued, talking right over him.
"Get out of this dungeon now."
Silence came and went, confusion turning into hostility.
They gripped their weapons and took their stances.
"No?"
Ignotus tilted his head.
"Hm. That’s annoying."
He really didn’t have time for a debate.
Every second they wasted was a second the Demon got stronger.
"Oh, how about this..."
Ignotus raised his arm and pointed his black blade at a random Runebearer near the front—a guy looking particularly confused.
"You there. Can you come up here for a moment?"
The man blinked, looking around to see if Ignotus meant someone else.
"Me?"
"Yes, you."
Driven by a weird mix of fear and confusion, the man complied and slowly walked up to Ignotus.
"Good, I don’t want to fight."
Ignotus sheathed his sword, acting the part of a harmless man.
But the moment the stranger’s foot stepped within striking distance, the air changed.
THUMP!
Ignotus unleashed his Divinity, his Will, a crushing pressure.
The man froze, his knees locking up as his breath caught in his lungs.
Before his brain could even send the signal to scream, Ignotus reached out.
He grabbed the man’s left arm and pulled.
Squelch! Crack!
This was a butchery.
With a wet, sickening tear, the arm came out of the socket—bone, muscle, and all.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The man’s pained scream echoed through the cavern, bouncing off the burning walls.
Blood sprayed in a wide arc, a few drops landing on Ignotus’s pristine white mask.
"Ugh."
Disgusted, he wiped the blood off with his index finger and then casually wiped his finger on the severed hand he was still holding.
"Here."
He shoved the severed arm back into the screaming man’s remaining hand.
"Hold onto that. A healer might be able to reattach it if you run fast enough."
He turned back to the group, who were now paralyzed, pale, and shaking.
"So, I’ll say it for the last time..."
Ignotus scanned the rest, his eyes terrifyingly unreadable.
"You guys better leave."
The leader, shaking off the shock, roared in anger.
"You bastard! Attack h—"
Before the leader could finish the sentence, Ignotus was there.
He had reached out and clamped his hand around the leader’s throat, lifting him off the ground.
The leader gagged, clawing uselessly at Ignotus’s iron grip.
"Do you like novels?"
Ignotus leaned in close.
"Horror novels?"
The leader turned purple.
"Well, you know, in the start, there’s always this ’nice guy?’ The one who tries to be brave? The one you’re sure will get himself killed to show how scary the monster is?"
Ignotus tightened his grip.
"Then it happens... he gets killed. Trust me... you’re going to be that guy."
He didn’t look at the leader but past him, locking eyes with a female mage. She was trembling violently, tears streaming down her face, probably the leader’s lover.
"Unless you listen."
The girl nodded frantically, absolutely horrified.
"Good."
Ignotus threw the leader onto the ground.
"Run."
They didn’t need to be told twice. The girl grabbed the gasping leader, two others grabbed the one-armed screamer, and they bolted, running back towards the entrance faster than they had ever run in their lives.
Ignotus watched them go, dusting off his hands.
"Problem solved."
He turned back to his cohort.
Lykos, Ulv, Merlin, Gaia, Nora, and even the stoic Aur were staring at him with their jaws on the floor.
Ignotus gestured to the empty tunnel.
"You all saw that? I call it efficiency; you’d better learn it."
The cohort exchanged a collective look.
’Yeah, no.’
That was a thought they all shared.
’We are absolutely not learning that.’
Ignotus, oblivious to their judgment, turned back to the dark path ahead.
"Alright. Now that the trash is taken out... let’s begin."
He truly was unhinged.